Adding color to epoxy

[LARRYZ10]

I have tried many pigments and even acrylic painting colors over the years and my choice is K&G powdered colors. They have black, yellow, white, red , tan. I think they also make a blue and a green. If you mix yellow and white carefully you will get a pigment that is spot on as ivory for use with natural camel bone.( or ivory if have some) The black powder pigment is useful for many jobs and repairs as well. Larry

 

[PoorUserName]

Also how well a colour/pigment hold up to daylight without fading.

 

[Kevin McGovern]

I have used black powdered toner (from a copying machine), Alumilite liquids and my favorite- Powdered aniline dyes from Keda https://www.kedadyeinc.com/ . The kit from Keda is cheap and a little goes a Loooong way. The powder is water and alcohol soluble, so I am not concerned ( and haven't seen an issue) with it reducing epoxy strength. Besides the fact that it takes VERY LITTLE powder to color epoxy. It's also a nice thing to have for dying wood handles. As a wood stain, you can mix it with water or alcohol (i use alcohol) in any color combination you want. You only have to mix up what you need at the moment.

 

[Geoff Flato]

I'll give a little more detail on the stuff I use. I buy epoxy from an industrial fibreglass/resin supplier, and they sell liquid pigment specifically designed for epoxy resins. And since its the laminating/marine market they supply, $10 will get a lifetime supply of any given color for how much a knifemaker uses. Personally at that price I don't see any reason to use substitutes that may or may not cause problems down the road.

 

[Jesse Smith]

Another reason I like Acraglass. They make dyes specifically for their epoxy. Its cheap and goes a LONG way. Just one drop will dye enough epoxy for a knife. I bought the little jars of dye about 6 years ago and have used just about half of each color.

I didn't know they made those. Do they have colors other than black, brown, camo, and white?

 

[Darrin Sanders]

No but I use the powders from K&G for the colors they don't have (mostly red) and I've never had a problem.

 

[Maelstrom78]

Heck plain ink works too:


Broken mammoth tooth handle.

Crushed up mammoth tooth scrap mixed with epoxy and a few drops of black ink:


Built a dam of painters tape:
Finished er up:


Worked for this repair.

Fine lookin handle!

 

[Horsewright]

Thanks.